Enemy Mine: Difference between revisions

Finally, this is an opportunity to show the villains as being more competent than they typically are. While they're defeated by the heroes week after week, the bad guys can actually contribute to the defeat of whatever threat they're teaming up with the heroes against.

 

 

Not to be confused with the Dennis Quaid movie/Barry Longyear story ''[[Enemy Mine (film)|Enemy Mine]]''. We also sincerely hope that you did not have a slip of the finger and ended up here instead of at [[Enemy Mime]]. For an enemy that ''is'' a mine, see [[Action Bomb]], and for a different kind of mine which is filled with enemies, see [[Dug Too Deep]].

 

{{examples}}

* Subverted in ''[[UFO Robo Grendizer]]''. In one of the manga versions, ''[[Great Mazinger]]'' [[Big Bad]], Emperor of Darkness, offered ''[[Mazinger Z|Kouji Kabuto]]'' an alliance to fight [[Alien Invasion|the Vegans]]. It was subverted because Kouji refused the offer and [[Big Bad]] King Vega {{spoiler|killed the Emperor to impede that alliance and get ridden of a possible enemy and competitor.}}

* In the anime version of ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'', Episode 12 has Welkin and Faldio team up with Jaeger and Selvaria to foil a plot to to kidnap Princess Cordelia (and Alicia, who was captured in the process) and use her to BS an impromptu alliance between the Federation and Gallia, which is really a cheap way for Prime Minster Borg to usurp the throne "legally" and force the Imperial forces into a two front war situation, which at best leaves him in control of Gallia with Federation backing and gives the Imperial forces pause, or at worst ensures the Imperials are forced to fight a much bigger enemy on two fronts, with either outcome leaving him at an advantage. Everyone launches obvious objections to Welkin's proposed Enemy Mine until Welkin points out the massive mutual gain they stand to profit from, leading to a brief Imperial-Gallia alliance to foil the plot.

* In the final 3 chapters of ''[[Psyren]]'', Yoshina Ageha teams up with {{spoiler|Amagi Miroku against Mithra.}}

* Anytime [[Inuyasha]] and [[Aloof Big Brother|Sesshomaru]] team up, this happens, though at the end of each scenario Sesshy walks off just a little more of an [[Anti-Hero]] than before.

 

== Comic Books ==

** Subverted in one of the scenes set in [[Ghost in the Machine|Jade's mindscape]]—Hero tries to form an alliance against [[Super-Powered Evil Side|The Queen]] with his apparent rival Father, but is rejected.

** In a similar subversion, the J-Team refuses to ally with [[Future Badass|Karasu]] against Drago, as they don't see any good coming from working with a Shadowkhan.

 

== Films -- Animation ==

* This trope is the whole point of ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]'', though the monsters [[Anti-Villain|are pretty good-natured]].

* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' movie "Bender's Big Score", not only is the Robot Devil providing music at {{spoiler|Leela's abortive wedding}}, but they later team up with the robot mafia and evil robotic Santa to take Earth back from the scammer aliens.

 

== Films -- Live Action ==

* ''[[Fantastic Four (film)|Fantastic Four]]: Rise of the Silver Surfer'' has the titular team teaming up with Dr. Doom to get the Silver Surfer. Eventually the Fantastic Four team up with the Surfer {{spoiler|after Doom betrays them and takes the Surfer's board for himself. And probably after to prevent Galactus from destroying Earth.}}

 

* ''[[The Enemy Papers|Enemy Mine]]'' by Barry B. Longyear, the basis for the movie mentioned above.

* In William King's ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' novel ''[[Space Wolf]]'', the Marines chose Ragnar and Strybjorn for Marines when they were fighting each other to the death, and both were mortally wounded. Ragnar's desire for [[Revenge]] is kept at bay by the knowledge that the Marines will not let him. {{spoiler|Finally, when they are fighting Chaos Space Marines, Strybjorn saves Ragnar's life, and shortly thereafter goes down. Ragnar realizes that he neither should nor does want Strybjorn to die; he sends the others on and [[No One Gets Left Behind|stays to treat and bring Strybjorn with them]].}}

* And in the ''[[Warchild Series]]'', Captain Azarcon, a [[Space Marine]], and Niko, human sympathizer of the alien [[La Résistance|resistance]] work together to {{spoiler|rescue hostages and capture gunrunners. This collaboration leads to the end of the war... for a time, anyway.}}

** The fact that each man at least respects the other's abilities helps.

* ''[[Worldwar]]'', by [[Harry Turtledove]]. Aliens invade in 1942. The Axis are working with the Allies. Another one occurs between the Jews in Europe and the Race. Aliens who never figured out discrimination or Nazi Germany. Played with in the sense that they aren't quite sure who'd be worse for mankind. (The Jews play it both ways,[[Heel Face Revolving Door|working with the Race or the Germans depending on who's a bigger threat at the time.]])

* Bertie Wooster and {{spoiler|Sir Roderick Glossop}} team up in ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (novel)|Thank You, Jeeves]]'' and end up getting along very well, even exchanging invitations to lunch. Bertie notes that he can't be all bad, since he {{spoiler|beat up Chuffy's [[Bratty Half-Pint]] cousin Seabury}}.

 

* ''[[The X-Files]]'' episode "En Ami". And "Tunguska"/"Terma" as well, although that turned out to be a set-up.

** In a later season of ''Voyager'', in the episode where the Delta Flyer is introduced, B'Elanna Torres learns that the Maquis lost back home. She turns depressed and does dangerous things in the Holodeck with the safety off, and because most of the ship has all but forgotten their initial division between Starfleet and Maquis, they don't know what's wrong with her.

** When they first re-establish contact with Starfleet, Janeway mentions to Chekotay that she actually ''had'' forgotten the implications of the mixed crew after they had been working together for so long.

* In ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'''s final arc, the separate [[Kamen Rider]] worlds are pitted against each other in a giant war, with the losers being erased from existence, so naturally Riders and Kaijin put aside their differences in order to protect their universes. Tsukasa, in the meantime, tries to convince everyone to focus on the common enemy in [[Legion of Doom|Daishocker]]; it works almost too late, but then the death of [[Kamen Rider X|Apollo Geist]] actually accelerates the destruction rather than stopping it. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Dammit]].

 

* Since most wrestlers [[Kayfabe|theoretically]] have little say on who they either fight or team with, an Enemy Mine often occurs when an on-screen authority figure randomly decides two people who don't like each other will team up against a common enemy. This used to happen all the time with [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]] and [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]]. An example would be when Stone Cold was booked to fight [[The Undertaker]] and Rock against [[Triple H]] at ''Over the Edge 1998,'' one ''Raw'' saw Austin and Rock being forced to team together against Undertaker and [[Triple H]]. Since Undertaker and [[Triple H]] were members of the same stable, the story of the match was whether Austin and Rock (who only weeks earlier were in a bitter feud) could put up with each other long enough to survive.

** This specific Enemy Mine would occur several times through 1999, not all of them being in official matches. For example: the ''[[WWE Smackdown|SmackDown]]'' pilot in which the Corporate Ministry came together in the first place.

* Often happens in [[Royal Rumble]]s and Battle Royals, as many wrestlers team up to eliminate the biggest wrestlers.

 

 

* ''[[Mage: The Awakening]]'' generally sees the Pentacle Orders locked in battle against the [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Seers of the Throne]]. However, when a Left-Handed Legacy (servants of the [[Eldritch Abomination|Abyss]]) makes itself known, both sides will declare a truce and stamp it out as best they can.

** ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'' has much the same dynamic, with the Traditions and the Technocracy setting aside their conflict long enough to take down a [[Omnicidal Maniac|Nephandus]] or Marauder.

* In ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'', even if someone's ideology is directly opposed to yours (Psion vs. Anti-Mutant, Corpore Metal vs. Frankenstein Destroyers), alliances can always shift to suit the demands of the moment. You can always hose them later.

 

* In ''[[The Taming of the Shrew]]'', several men are rivals for the hand of the fair Bianca, but her father won't let any of them marry her unless her shrewish older sister, Katarina, is married off first. Realizing that there's no point in fighting each other if they don't have a chance, the suitors decide to work together to get Katarina a husband.

 

* In ''[[Final Fantasy X-2]]'', the Leblanc Syndicate, who are enemies originally, become allies of the Gullwings in Chapter 3. This is different, however, in that they remain allies for the rest of the game, even helping in the fight against {{spoiler|Vegnagun}}.

* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'', in the Valentine's Day 2006 and 2007 events, the missions to unlock special prizes required mixed hero-villain teams to complete. As well, the issue 10 update included a whole hero-villain co-op zone, the Rikti War Zone.

** Also a villainous example, insomuch as Galeem and Dharkon are [[Arch Enemies]], but both are villains. Th true [[Final Battle]] is a [[Dual Boss]] fight against both, although neither will try particularly hard not to injure the other, clearly intending to turn on each other should the heroes be beaten.

 

* ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'', as mentioned above, in which the red and blue teams often join up to battle O'Malley, and later the Meta.

* ''[[Haloid]]''. When Samus and MC first meet, Samus attacks MC for no good reason and they start a running battle. When more Covenant troops show up, Samus and MC join forces to fight them, including a [[Back-to-Back Badasses]] moment.

** [[Justified Trope|Not entirely for no good reason]]. Niether Samus nor MC recognize the other as human at first, and [[Poor Communication Kills|each presumes the other to be more of the enemy]]. Once Samus is down to her Zero Suit, MC stops attacking her {{spoiler|[[Hello, Nurse!|for more than one reason]]}}, and once Samus gets a good look at {{spoiler|Nicole}} through the visor, she stops attacking {{spoiler|her}} as well.

* In episode 9 of ''[[Mega Man Dies at the End]]'', {{spoiler|Mega Man and Dr. Wily}} have to work together to escape from the guards.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

Of sunshine fire, to fight the truly cruel." }}

 

* In ''[[The Gamers Alliance]]'', [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Kagetsu I]] begins working with the Grand Alliance against [[Complete Monster|Arawn Losstarot]] when the Alliance saves Kagetsu's wife Marya from Arawn's stronghold. Likewise a group of [[Religion of Evil|clerics of Mardük]] and [[Worthy Opponent|Samachi]] work with the Alliance against the [[The Legions of Hell|Northern Horde]] during the battle of Vanna despite their animosity which stems all the way from the Great War.

* In ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'', Shameeca Mitchell and Heath Trennoby enlist the aid of [[Anti-Villain]] Bobby Jacks in order to mount a rescue from [[Jerkass|all around asshole]] Lenny Priestly. Admittedly Shameeca hadn't met Bobby before this point, but she was well aware that he was a killer.

Doctor: -sigh- [[Yaoi Fangirl|The fangirls]] [[Foe Yay|are going to have a field day with this...]] }}

 

* In ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' it's not unusual to see the Autobots and Decepticons (or [[Expy|expies]] of them) joining forces to take on a greater threat. It just takes a greater threat to make them do it. Usually [[Planet Eater|Unicron]], but not always.

** In ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', during the second season finale, {{spoiler|the Autobots and Decepticons' latest battle is interrupted by Starscream and his clones. The Autobots and Decepticons end up fighting the same enemy, and at one point Optimus and Megatron have a [[Back-to-Back Badasses]] moment... only for Megatron to grab Optimus and use him as a living shield. The clones eventually turn on Starscream later, join Megatron, and everyone is back to square one.}}

* In season two of ''[[The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes|Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes]]'', the [[Legion of Doom|Masters of Evil]] were forced to team-up with the Avengers against the Enchantress and the Executioner, who were killing off the Masters one-by-one in a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]].

 

* The proverb is of either ancient Arabic or Chinese origin, but the closest you're going to get to a [[Trope Namer]] is [[Niccolo Machiavelli]], who coined this principle: The neighbour is the natural enemy; hence the neighbour to the neighbour is the natural ally.

* This happened a lot during [[World War II]]: